Quest of Destiny
by deus athei
Summary: four years after Malomyotismon the Digidestined face a new evil, one that will shatter the very core of their belifs,  rated for charcter death
1. starts and begginings

Disclaimer I don't own digimon, I lay no claim to any characters (even OCs) and heck I won't even claim the plot. If you happen to have a job wherein all you do is look for fanfiction, fanvideos and other fan made content to check for disclaimers I have one question. Where do I sign up? (Easiest job ever!)

Pairings will be made more evident as the story progresses. You could always check my profile for my favourite couples, but I'm not guaranteeing anything.

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><p>Taichi "Tai" Yagami's room was a complete mess. His desk was overflowing with scattered, discarded and unorganized paper. Following the trail of paper would lead one to a floor, or what could be assumed to be a floor, as it was so thickly covered with clothes, towels, blankets, chip bags, rappers, and other various articles that if one didn't know the colour of the floor before, one could not guess. The chip bags and rappers culminate near the bed, where the owner of the room was currently sleeping in only his boxers, one hand still in a half open chip bag, the other draped across his bed. Despite the chaos and clutter of the room, an artist might describe it as poetic, but the rest of us would sum it up as a disaster.<p>

Or at least those are the words his little sister Hikari "Kari" would choose.

She had performed a near heroic feat of strength just by opening the door through all this rubbish, and was now tasked with a far more difficult mission, awakening her brother. She decided to start with the obvious.

"Tai wake up." Kari's effort was rewarded with seeing her brother momentarily stiffen indicating that he had heard her, but he made no other indication that he was awake.

"Tai I don't have time for this get up." Kari was unsuccessfully trying to hide the annoyance in her voice. This time she got a reply

"Nhhhhhhh"

Okay so maybe it wasn't so much as a reply as a response. Kari decided to pull out the big guns.

Two clicks were heard each one near simultaneous with a flash of bright light. That usually got his attention.

"Alright Tai you know the deal get up or I send a picture to each of our friends." Sweet blackmail, what would she do without it.

"Kari I just studied for like two weeks strait for exams, can't a guy get twelve hours of sleep after that?"

"More like studied for twelve hours and has been resting for two days," Kari retorted, "besides this is more important," here Kari paused and checked to make sure their parents weren't eavesdropping before continuing

"Its digiworld related."

That got him up. Tai quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed the nearest shirt and jeans, sniffed them, and after finding the smell to be bearable proceeded to put them on. All while shouting a slightly muffled "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Kari replied with a giggle "Because it's more fun to see your reaction this way. Now hurry up everyone's meeting at Izzy's in fifteen minutes."

After quickly grabbing a bite to eat from the various bags scattered throughout the room, Tai punctually dragged Kari to Izzy's. Very punctually. Made-the-ten-minute-trek-in-four, punctually. When they arrived at their destination they found, as per usual, that their intelligent friend was being tight-lipped until everyone else arrived. Everyone except Mimi to be more precise, as she was currently living in New York. Tai took the time to reflect on possibilities of why Koushirou "Izzy" was calling this meeting. He was partially surprised as to why they were there at all, the Digiworld had been at relative peace for four years now, since Malomyotismon, and he figured that if another problem arose a new team of Digidestined would be called, much like Davis and his group were after their first adventure. Not that he minded, Tai much preferred battling himself than sitting on the sidelines, but in a few short months he was going to start attending university and it might be a little troublesome if he wasn't able to complete his studies due to some problem in the digital world.

Tai let out a grunt, he was beginning to sound like Joe, but still he couldn't help but be a little annoyed with the "forces that guard the digital world". First he, like the rest of the Digidestined, gave away his crest so that no evil could enter the digital world, and in return they had been locked out while the Digimon Emperor was freely moving between the worlds. Now Owikawa gave up his life force to protect the digital world. With that much help what more did they need to do their job right?

Still this could be fun, as long as whatever threat they were fighting didn't last past summer, and if it weren't for the failures of these 'mysterious forces' he never would have met Agumon or have been nearly as close to his friends. Currently, Agumon and the other Digimon were in the digital world. While the Digimon enjoyed spending time with their human partners, they still got homesick and routinely moved back and forth between the two worlds, sometimes roughing it in the digital world and others relaxing with their human halves in the human world. The Digidestined and Digimon would of course both much rather spend most of their time together, but both had independent lives and had to accommodate as such.

"I wonder what their up to now?" Tai muttered and looked over as the door opened revealing Lori 'Cody', Takeru 'TK' and Miyako 'Yolei', who had presumably walked over together from their apartment complex. The three quickly shuffled into the kitchen which was been used as a holding area as Izzy continued to work on his mysterious project in his room. Cody had noticeably changed over the years, shooting up like a weed, but still dwarfed by the older kids. He had also grown out is hair slightly, but kept most of his personality, only growing wiser and more knowledgeable as time went on. Yolei had also grown, though much less than Cody, however time had taught her to better control her temper.

TK turned to Kari and asked "Any clue what this is about?"

"No we know about as much as you do." Tai heard his sisters reply. Tai sized up the two of them; he still thought of the two of them as the little eight year olds who first ventured into the Digital world, despite the fact TK was now as tall as he was. When the two of them were together, however, he immediately went into protective big brother mode. Apparently they had often been mistaken for a couple in school, which he heard all about when Kari finally needed to vent. He didn't mind too much, as long as the boys thought Kari was taken it meant they would put the moves on her themselves. Now he just had to hope that TK didn't get any ideas, or Davis for that matter, after all the two of them knew exactly what Tai would do to them if he found out they were dating his sister. At least Tai hoped they knew, he had to have been telling them about their excruciating hypothetical deaths for at least once a month over the past four years.

Tai's thoughts were interrupted as new arrivals showed up, this time it was Yamato 'Matt' and Sora. The two of them most likely came straight from some "alone time" together, as they had been going steady for four years. Not that Tai minded. Okay he might feel a little left out when his two best friends sneak out to have some "alone time", and he might have perhaps harboured a crush for the female in question, and she just might have broken his heart in the past. But he was bigger than that, he had moved on and was truly happy for them, really. And all this had absolutely nothing to do with the fact he was attending a different university than the pair next year. Really.

Joe arrived next, and luckily for him he had decided not to take those summer courses to get a "head start" on second year. If he had then he might have gotten A LOT side tracked this summer. Arriving promptly after Joe and somehow within the predetermined fifteen minutes was Daisuke 'Davis'.

"Am I late, did he start yet?" Davis immediately inquired. To his misfortune it was Yolei who answered

"No but everyone else who lives in town managed to get here, seriously you're lucky Ken lives in Tamachi or you'd be the last one here."

"Well it's not my fault if I have important things to do."

"More important than the digital world?"

"Obviously not I'm here aren't I?"

Luckily Ken chose that moment to enter and ended the argument. Tai new it was all in good fun like when he bickered with Matt, but at least they threw in jokes unlike the pair who seemed to be sparing for no reason. And the pair unfortunately hung around each other often, because Davis was Ken's best friend and Yolei had been his girlfriend for just over a year now. He didn't know how Ken put up with them, or any of the younger Digidestined for that matter. Despite Davis' annoying habit of arguing with Yolie, he had matured greatly, and he normally thought before entering into a serious situation. He still had the same crush on Kari, but ether Tai's tirades were working or he had grown more subtle about it.

As for Ken, actually Tai didn't register much of a change in Ken, partially because he didn't know Ken that well in the first place. He thought maybe Ken had grown more open after being re-integrated into society, but he really didn't know.

Tai decided to get the group back on track "Now that everyone's here, can we find out why we're here?"

Kourshirou 'Izzy' hesitated before replying "Alright come on in"

Ten teenagers filed into Izzy's room and were greeted by a familiar face.

"Hello" said Genni "it's good to see you; I wish it was under more pleasant circumstances however."

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><p>AN well there you have it, chapter one.

This will be a tale focusing around many different characters, but most of it will be told from Tai's perspective. Different arcs will focus on different characters and their will be character death. Some relationship elements will be evident but the fic is meant to be more prominently adventure than anything.

Updates will probably come on an when I feel like it/ when I don't have so much work that I shouldn't but enough work to procrastinate/ random whimsical basis

Reviews always appreciated, constructive criticism encouraged, and flamers flame your heart out, we all need to relive stress at one time or another, and it still counts as a review "yay".


	2. Explanation, plan, shopping?

Disclaimer, I don't even think I'm old enough to legally own Digimon

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><p>"Hello" said Genni "it's good to see you; I wish it was under more pleasant circumstances however."<p>

"Don't worry about it" smirked Matt "we hardly meet under 'pleasant circumstances', you get used to it after a while."

"And besides," added Davis "we beat Malomyotismon, how many bad guys stronger than him are there?"

"It's true Malomyotismon was very strong, in fact there are only and handful of Digimon more powerful, and most of them are the Sovereigns." here Davis, Tai and many others allowed themselves smiles "But these new foes have the potential to be more dangerous than even he was."

"Foes, you mean more than one?" inquired Cody.

"Yes, there are indeed multiple enemies this time, seven to be exact."

No one replied for a while, each of them considering just what this new information truly meant. Sure, they had faced groups before, there were four Dark Masters after all, but never had they faced seven at once. On the other hand like Davis said the Digidestined were a force to be reckoned with, maybe they did have a chance.

Ken however seemed to be mulling on something completely different than the rest of the group.

"You said 'potential to be more dangerous', does that mean you don't know, or that there not yet dangerous?"

"I always knew you were a bright one Ken" Genni responded "in this case it means that no, they are not yet strong enough to be much of a threat."

That tidbit was all Davis needed "Great, so all we got to do is beat them before they get strong."

Tai took it from there "Alright sounds like a plan, now tell us Genni where are these guys so we can get this over with?"

"Yes where are they indeed, that is the question, for at this point is no one knows, not even them."

Izzy, who had been uncharacteristically quite up to this point suddenly became very curious. "What do you mean? Is this some kind of prophecy, or are they just not aware of who they are."

"Perhaps I should start at the beginning and it should all be come clear," the group went into an expectant hush "well not the very beginning that would take far too long of course, but at the beginning of this section then."

"It all started back when you were fighting Apocalymon, or at least those of you who were there," Genni add this part as an afterthought, "during the battle Apocalymon managed to destroy your crests, and that act set off the chain of events that lead to this situation."

"What does this have to do with Apocalymon, is gone isn't he?" Yolei blurted out before remembering the atmosphere of the room.

"Unfortunately Apocalymon cannot be killed, much like the Sovereigns his power can only be drained or sealed away, not destroyed. If he could the digital world would be in more trouble than you know"

"Why is that?" this time it was Cody asking "if this guy is pure evil like I heard wouldn't it be better if he was out of the picture for good?"

Surprisingly it was TK who answered "Because Apocalymon rules over regeneration, without him Digimon wouldn't be able to come back," TK suddenly turned to Genni "right?"

"Very good TK I must say I am mildly surprised," Genni complemented "in short without Apocalymon all life in the digital world would eventually cease to exist, unfortunately this is also the trait that caused him to become filled with darkness and- as Cody put it - evil"

"Well whatever," Yolie shook her head as she spoke "either way the guy was defeated we won right?"

"Apocalymon was defeated and with that he lost his energy and should not have been able to recover it fully until many lifetimes in the future, however it appears he didn't need that much to pull off his new trick but I digress." Everyone stopped asking questions for the time being and turned their full attention back to Genni "Now when Apocalymon destroyed the crests it seemed as little consequence. You all had enough exposure to your crests to retain their powers even after they were removed from you. The problem comes from the fact that for the brief moment between Apocalymon destroying the crests and he himself being defeated the crests became a part of him, allowing him full access to their secrets. After thoroughly examining them he made seven replicas to act as anti-crests. Basically, instead of the crests capitalizing on positive traits like yours do these crest focus on negative ones, and each one was made to be an anti-crest of one existing crest"

"Only seven?" Sora sounded hesitant "aren't their nine crests?"

Ken answered the first half "I wasn't with you guys when Apocalymon destroyed your crests so he never had the crest of kindness"

"Correct," Genni promptly filled in the rest "and Apocalymon felt no desire to create an anti-crest to light, because he figured that he himself was the embodiment of darkness and required no human partner to digivolve."

"So that leaves us with seven," Joe filled in "sounds right to me. Go on Genni"

"Alright, even with the existing crests Apocalymon still had no idea how to use them as he could not break the barrier to the digiworld and even if he did no humans were currently in the digital world to receive them. Yes this problem could have been avoided, or at least delayed greatly if Myotismon had not interfered. Like Apocalymon, Myotismon wished to enter the digital world but could not due to the protection placed over it; unlike Apocalymon he developed a plan. Myotimon realized that he could not enter the digital world, but that a Digidestined, namely Ken, could. You all know the story from their but this was all the information Apocalymon needed. Over the past couple years he has been building his strength with the intention of sending the anti-crests not to the digital world, but to the human world. Luckily, when he realised the power to send the crest to the human world, the Sovereigns were able to figure out his plan. They contacted me and after sorting out the details, I was sent to inform you."

"Wait so your saying that somewhere in the world, there are seven crests, and that seven children might spring out of the ground and turn into our new foes?" Joe looked anxious "No way. This is just too big we can't search the world it would take forever."

"Actually the crests can only be received by a Digidestined, as they only work through a digivice." Genni attempted to calm the crazed teen that was Joe, "and it's not just anyone either, the crests want to be found, but only by someone it declares worthy. Until then the crests will travel on their own attempting to find the ones their destined for. Your job is to find the crests before they manifest, and destroy them. But just in case you can't the Sovereigns and I decided to give you these." he held out eight pendants of different colours.

"Our crests" Sora exclaimed and everyone except Tai and Izzy rushed forward to grab their respective crest, Sora also grabbed Mimi's.

"If we take these than what about the Sovereigns?" Tai asked "aren't they supposed to protect the digital world with these things?"

"As most of the fighting will occur on earth and Apocalymon drained his energy to send the crests, there should be no need for the Sovereigns to use the powers of the crests its." after hearing this Izzy and Tai took their crests "but thanks for your concern. Any questions?"

"Yes" replied Izzy bluntly "if these crests are found how quick is the corruption process, is it instantaneous? A week? A month? Or very long term?"

"In truth I don't know" Genni answered "I would expect that they work like yours in which case the development of the crest would vary based upon how often the traits are shown , as well as the criteria for Digivolving. Without outside stimuli…. about a month."

"Good, now in this case the children in question would not suffer any major changes in personality until after even that point affirmative?"

"Once again I don't know but any changes should be subtle otherwise he could run the risk of altering a person past where digivolution is possible."

"And finally, I believe you stated that all recipients would currently be Digidestined, not future Digidestined?"

"Yes otherwise the crests could not recognize their host's abilities."

"Thanks Genni." it appeared the genius was finished his questioning.

Genni scanned the room for more questions and when he found none he turned to go. Suddenly an inexplicable curiosity came over Tai "Wait."

Genni turned back "Out of curiosity what traits are the anti-crests, and do you know what is an anti of what? Or what they look like?"

"I do not know what springs from what or what they look like but I do know what the crests are: pride, lust, sloth, greed, wrath, gluttony, and envy."

After this Genni went to Izzy's computer and traveled back to the digital world.

Tai's brain was going a mile a minute trying to figure out this situation. It seemed kind of hopeless, even if they knew the kids were Digidestined most didn't flaunt that fact. No they kept their Digimon in hiding as so not to elicit panic. And even if they knew who was and who wasn't a Digidestined, there were still hundreds of them scattered across the globe, and no signs of the crests would show for a month.

"It's a shame he doesn't know what they look like," Kari whined "now they'll just be that much harder to find."

"Not exactly" Ken stated

"'That's my Ken" Yolie said with a hint of affection in her voice, "I bet you already know how to find all the crests"

"Not me no," Yolies face plummeted "but Izzy sure does."

The group turned to face the computer genius, who was wearing a confident smirk.

"Alright let's hear it then." Matt said breaking the sudden silence

"Ok," Izzy paused for effect "but first some should probably pick up the Digimon, we may need a contingency plan in case something awry."

"All right, I'm there, now what's this plan Izzy, we don't have time to waste." Davis said doing nothing to hide his impatience.

"Actually we do, but someone should probably bring Mimi up to speed, I don't think we will require her assistance but she will most likely be mad if she feels excluded."

"Okay I'll go, it's been forever since I've seen her anyway." Kari said quickly, trying to humour the Digidestined of knowledge so he would finally tell his plan. It didn't work.

"I should go to, I haven't seen her in a while either" Sora imputed.

"Oh no you don't, you girls aren't going without me," Yolie said "we'll have a girls day out, we'll go shopping and -"

"Excuse me ladies" Tai cut across, "we do kind of have a situation, you know anti-crests and all"

"Relax Tai" Sora said "Izzy did say we had time to kill" she looked towards the boy in question to confirm this.

"Yep, three weeks" said Izzy, clearly getting amusement from the potential argument in front of him.

"If I may interject" everyone followed the voice back to Cody, "if we have to search every Digidestined in the world, we should start as soon as possible, not in three weeks."

"No I have a funny feeling we'll be fine" T.K. answered.

"How would you know?"

"'Cause otherwise Izzy's wouldn't be letting us waste time and would be bragging rather than sitting quite holding his plan over our heads."

"Speaking of which" Davis' impatience had increased, "what is this master plan?"

Once again everyone turned their attention back to Izzy, determined not to get side-tracked. "It's simple really"

"Do tell" Matt said, his voice mimicking the combination of everyone's resolve and annoyance.

"Well we know that the anti-crests will appear shortly but take a while to manifest. Three weeks the optimal period for which the crests can emerge but not yet long enough for them to manifest. So really we have three weeks before we need to do anything"

"But that still doesn't explain how were going to find everyone." Cody fought back

"Yes, however, after the battle with Malomyotismon, and the world tour, I realized that there may be instances where other Digidestined around the world are required to help, or should be sent information. Knowing this I created a system for all members of the Digidestined to communicate with each other over the internet. Every Digidestined that exists right now I have registered under this program."

"How come this is the first I'm hearing about it then" Joe inquired.

"Because I figured if anything happened we'd be at the heart of it, and we already know how to contact each other." Izzy answered "But for your information you are registered, I just have the settings so that you aren't notified barring a complete disaster. Anyway in three weeks I will send out a message asking for all those with crests to respond, using Imperialdramon we bring them to Odiba, explain the situation and take the crests. After that we can figure out how to destroy the crests but until then they can't do any harm. Any questions?" Izzy confidently looked back at the group, as if daring them to find a flaw.

After a minute and a half of silence Tai once again took over the role of leader, "Alright so tomorrow after school we'll go round up our Digimon and bring them back. Ladies I expect you to handle telling Mimi about this" he paused and received a quick nod "okay then dismissed, oh, and Izzy this plan had better work."

"Of course it will work," Izzy scoffed "it's not like were fighting some dastardly evil force here it's just fellow kids, who we can reason with. What could go wrong?"

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><p>"So, basically there is a group of children running around with these- whatchemacalit- anti-crest things and if left unchecked they could destroy the world?" Mimi asked while holding a particularly desirable shirt against her front.<p>

"Yeah I guess you could put it that way" Sora responded, once the three teenagers and their Digimon had arrived in America via digiport Mimi had insisted they go shopping. Sora would have enjoyed this normally, but the fact it was around three a.m. back home slowed her down slightly.

"And Izzy's plan on dealing with this crisis is to sit on our hands?" Mimi put back the shirt, apparently not finding satisfactory.

"Well there is a little more to it than that." This time Yolei answered her American friend.

"Well then which one of you am I going to stay with?"

Perhaps it was because they were all tired, or perhaps it was just the shock of the statement, or maybe both. But Mimi's statement was met with blank stares and slightly agape mouths. Kari was the first to recover.

"What are you talking about?"

"You didn't think I was going to spring for three weeks' worth of hotel rooms did you?"

"Well no, but you don't need to stay in japan that long, according to Izzy you probably won't need to go up at all" Sora said, Vainly trying to dissuade her friend.

"Izzy's not as smart as he thinks he is, and we are the Digidestend, Murphies Law is understood. So when something blows up in that self-proclaimed genius's face, I know all of you are going to go to me for help and when that happens I want to be within the general area." Mimi's tone indicated that her decision was final and the others instantly gave up on persuading her otherwise.

"I'd offer, but, I don't think either you or Tai would survive it." Kari stated rather unhelpfully.

"Don't look at me, I have more siblings and less room than Kari does" Yolie said

That left Sora "Well mom wouldn't have much of a problem but you'd probably have to help in the shop if you're staying for three weeks."

"I can take it I'm a big girl," Mimi said and started counting off her fingers "let's see…. current crisis, check. Living arrangements, check. That just leaves the most important issue…"

"What's that Mimi" Kari asked wondering what else the girl could possibly have thought up, considering they only told her minutes ago.

"Duh! Boys of course, so Sora you still with Matt? What am I saying of course you are it's not like either of you would cheat and I hear there's no lack of passion in that relationship."

"Mimi" Sora exclaimed, her face turning red.

Mimi rolled her eyes "Fine you're no fun. What about you Yolie? How far have you and Ken gone yet, wait no let me guess-"

"Mimi" Yolie's face changed to match Sora's and Kari started giggling.

"So you want to play, huh Kari? Tell me do you have your eye on anyone? Tall, blond, and blue eyed perhaps?" Kari started to blush "No well maybe brunet, athletic, and goggle headed then?"

Sora, Yolei, and Kari turned to look at each other, and quickly started walking towards the nearest computer, mutually agreeing to ignore the American's gossip.

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><p>Alright chapter two done, what did you think?<p>

Yes this is a demon lord story, and I'm certain the idea of "dark or anti –crests" have been used before, but I have yet to see them combined thoroughly, but there is still a really good chance it's been done (see disclaimer in chapter one).

Also, suddenly I love writing Izzy, there are so many words I used with him I thought I could never use properly in a story

The bit with Mimi in the end was mostly meant to add some length, but also because most fics either exclude Mimi entirely, or randomly have her living in japan again. I figured I could give at least a satisfactory explanation on how she gets from New York to Japan.

Once again Review if you can work up the energy to click the link, if you can't I don't know how you're going to navigate away from this page successfully.


	3. What Went Wrong

Disclaimer: hot water is hot, do not stick your hand in the fire, p= np, pregnancy can lead to child-rearing, the cake is a lie, stepping on an active grenade hurts, triple cheeseburgers with the bun stuffed with bacon are fattening, nerds don't secretly run the world; they're too busy playing D&D and writing fanfiction, I don't own Digimon, if you chose to be an atheist and die in an apocalyptic scenario it's your fault, if your friends all jump off a cliff there is obviously something wrong with them, I don't own camp Fujiyama, it doesn't exist as far as I know, I don't own this disclaimer… wait does it still work then? If at any time you are reading this disclaimer and suffer an injury, then you shouldn't have read it…..That is all.

A/N words said in italics are spoken in different languages, this includes English because – well – the Digidestined are Japanese and are most likely not fluent in English

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><p>For the second time in as many weeks, Tai found himself waiting at the Izumi residence for someone to arrive. This time, that person was Mimi, who was, according to Sora when Tai had last checked, getting her nails done. While an outsider might be confused on why the American insisted on continuing this vanity during a serious meeting, and a gossip might focus on the fact Mimi was "prettying up" before coming to Izzy's house, Tai knew it was more to annoy the boy of knowledge than anything else. And, because Izzy hated explaining his plan twice, that meant that Tai had to wait for her too. Something he wasn't very fond of.<p>

"Come on Izzy" he prodded, "can't you tell us now and tell Mimi later?"

"Do you really expect myself to explain it to you, and then give Mimi a private session?" Izzy said irritably

"Look, I know you're mad Mimi's not here but why does that mean we have to suffer?"

"Misery loves company."

"What if I do your algebra for a month?"

"Tai, you're majoring in the arts."

"Hey my program is a science."

"Let's look at this way; on one hand, my program is a quantum mechanics, computer science double degree, with specializes in using complex model systems to accurately predict multidimensional effects on quarks." Izzy said, "on the other hand, you're program is a minor in political science, which only involves enough math to balance the budget, and frankly, I'm not so sure you can do that."

"Fine, you can do my algebra then."

Izzy rolled his eyes while TK and Ken, who had remained rather quite up to this point, started snickering. That was main difference between this meeting and the last one, this time Izzy had only sent for Tai, TK, Ken, and- unfortunately- Mimi. Tai decided it was time for a new tactic.

"Izzy can't you just not tell Mimi, it's not like you called the whole group here; just us four, what's the difference between four and three?"

"This is why I don't trust you with my algebra, it can be derived as one, one quarter, twenty-five percent or, in terms you'll understand, the difference between a relay team and three individuals."

"Now you're just being difficult."

"When was I not being difficult?"

TK and Ken started laughing again, and caught Tai's attention, "Hey, help me out here, you guys have to wait just as long as I do."

"Yes but the key difference is we get a show to pass the time" Ken answered.

"Too bad I didn't bring popcorn," TK added "or a video camera."

"Hey I can record it on my phone" Ken replied pulling his phone out of his pocket, "then we can watch it later with everyone else."

"I'll make the popcorn."

"Alright ha ha very funny" Izzy said, "now put that away I concede."

Tai, TK, and Ken looked at each other, apparently the only thing that could make Izzy change his mind about waiting for everyone to arrive before explaining was his no cell phone policy. It was a shame he was out of high school, Tai would have loved to try that on one of his teachers.

"Okay here's the compromise, I'll tell you, Tai, a portion of the information that I don't think Mimi requires to know."

Tai smiled victorious, he finally did it, he made Izzy give up the goods before the genius wanted to, this was one for the record books and he addressed it as such

"I'm the man!"

"Quick get the camera ready." TK whispered to his co-conspirator.

"Don't you dare" Izzy's eyes narrowed, then he turn to Tai "and you're not so lucky either, you still have to wait for Mimi to get here so I can tell you the rest."

"Wha-ah?" Tai felt his hopes, his pride, and his joy all go down the drain. He had never experienced it before, but he suspected that this is what it felt like to have your soul crushed to bits and sucked through a straw.

"Too late, missed it." Ken said, putting his phone back in his pocket.

It didn't take Tai too long to recover from his devastating experience. He quickly vowed never to underestimate Izzy again before continuing.

"Well can you at least tell me the first part?"

"Foremost, I was wondering if you and Agumon could go to the Digital world and try warp Digivolving again. We know we have the crests and I know that we can go to Ultimate but If worst comes to worst it would be best to know our options."

"That's it?" Tai was stunned "that what you needed me for? You know I do check my email right?"

"That's not all; the rest is a new plan, after having a week to think about it I worked out all of the kinks and figure as the leader should run it by you."

"So then why isn't Davis here he's the leader of the younger group?" although Tai continued to banter with Izzy, his mind was already set on this new plan. Izzy's last one had been simple, so in retrospect he should have expected it to change. Still Tai didn't see anything wrong with it, get the kids with anti-crests bring them to Odiba, explain the situation, and then figure how to get rid of the anti-crests. No mess, no destruction, no evil monster bent on destroying the digital world.

"Davis is more of a heat of the moment leader, Ken and TK make more of the original plans" Izzy replied, unaware of Tai's train of thought.

"So that's why we're here." Ken deduced "Why do you need Mimi?"

"For the same reason you two are here which by the way has little to do with your role on the younger team. But for that I'll need Mimi."

"Fine" said Tai lying on Izzy's bed to think "in that case I think I'll get comfortable."

"Too bad, it's no fun without a show" TK said getting up and walking towards the door.

"Where are you going, you can't just leave" Izzy started panicking "I have to tell you the necessary information as well or else."

"Relax Izzy" Ken said pulling out his phone and moving to get Izzy and Tai in the shot.

Now Tai was interested, what was exactly supposed to happen? He looked at the door and his mouth dropped as TK opened it.

Izzy on the other hand was livid that his rules were not being followed; first he had to tell Tai part of his plan before everyone was there, next TK up and decided he was going to leave and now to top it all of Ken had a phone out and was video tapping him. Before he could release his wrath on the boy, he heard a voice call out.

"Izzy I'm here and good news, you can do my algebra homework too."

Izzy looked to the door, and nearly fainted. Standing in the door way was Mimi, and apparently she had been there for a while. Somehow, Mimi kept a straight face, TK however, who was standing beside her, was letting his laughter loose.

"But, what, how" Izzy would have continued but Tai cut him off.

"You've really just been waiting to enter to see the look on our faces, what kind of lame joke is that?"

"The good news is you get to see for yourself." Ken replied, "Send to –Digidestined."

Despite taking five minutes to get Izzy out of his bemused state, and a further ten to get him to stop sulking, the three showed no sign of regret. Only after Mimi promised to buy him a new laptop did he continue.

"As I was going to say before your little 'joke'" here he sent a glare towards TK Ken and Mimi, "I have worked out a good copy of the plan and I feel I should run it by all of you. As per the old plan I have already made contact with many of the Digidestined with the Anti-crests, far sooner than I believe I should have, as such I decided that we should move the original date and location. Instead of in two weeks, I recommend that we instead bring the children here on Saturday. Furthermore, instead of meeting them in Odiba, I recommend going to camp Fujiyama; that way in case something goes wrong there will be fewer innocents in the area. I have already covered for this by stating its importance to us being it's the first place we entered the digital world."

Tai was starting to realize why Izzy wanted to see if they could go to Mega, he was getting more and more afraid of a direct confrontation.

"While I always enjoy hearing when you're wrong, I suspect you have a different reason for inviting us" Mimi said.

"Yes, I have discovered the nationalities of the children; French, Spanish, American, and British. You're here because well…" Izzy turned to Mimi "after living in America for so long I expect you can speak English"

"Well Duh!"

"And Ken you are fluent in Spanish are you not?"

"I am"

TK shifted nervously as Izzy turned to him "and if I remember correctly you speak French."

"Well, um, not that much, just a bit, Grandma and Grandpa speak Japanese so not that much."

"I don't know a better candidate unless we stop to pick up your Grandfather" izzy suggested, as Tai remembered his last adventure with the eccentric Frenchman

"Please TK I beg you, I'll do anything just learn enough French so that your Grandpa stays in France."

"Anything? So if I said I wanted to ask out Kari…"

"By all means ask her out," Tai pleaded, and after seeing TK's victorious smile hastily added "just don't expect to live to the first date."

"Cut it out you two" Izzy interjected, "so TK can you do it or not?"

"I guess so"

"Alright the penultimate item then, because you three are translators you'll have to travel with Davis and I when we pick people up, which will be at about 6 pm. Tai, I expect you to be in charge of preparing things back at the cabin. Ken you're in charge of making sure Davis arrives on time, and I expect all of you to inform the others."

"So were done?" Tai asked hopefully

"No," At this point Tai wished Izzy used regular words. Seriously who the hell knew what penultimate meant?

"The final order of business" Izzy said continuing "Mimi, I'll take that computer within the next month, now listen carefully…."

Tai noticed TK sneak over to ken and the dark haired boy fishing in his pocket for his phone. After he retrieved it, TK turned to Mimi and nodded.

".. and make sure it's at least quad core, 2 gigs per core"

"Izzy now really, how am I going to remember all that?"

"Do you want me to write it down for you?"

"No I have a better solution," Mimi smiled mischievously, then, with lightning speed lashed out for Izzy's hand and quickly pulled him to the door uttering only one resonate word as her battle cry

"Shopping!"

"WAAAAAAAAaaaahhhhhh?"

Tai burst into laughter along with Ken and TK

"You trickster, she-devil, how dare you? This isn't compensation, its torture"

Tai had to admit from the other side this was kind of funny, obviously TK and Ken were hanging around with Davis too much. Or not enough, seeing as Tai new his look alike could have pulled off a much better prank. The only thing that worried him was that Izzy was worried. The genius was anticipating some type of confrontation. If these really kids were as strong as Genni said, that meant trouble. Then again, everyone had been suffering from tension lately maybe that's all it was. Still Tai couldn't help but have a feeling of dread hang over him, despite the fact he was currently sharing a laugh at Izzy's expense, something that would normally have calmed him.

* * *

><p>At 5:59 pm on Saturday Tai was a mess. Nothing was going right, first Sora and Kari had insisted on making a 'traditional Japanese diner' for when the Izzy returned with the others. This would have been fine except neither of them had ever really cooked before. So after the girls had managed to turn most of the food into inedible charcoal, Matt was forced to take over kitchen duty. This meant of course he had to whip up a meal for nineteen people with whatever the girls hadn't ruined, and he found in the cabin, in less than fifteen minutes. Also when they were moving tables Joe managed to throw out his back, before the group realized the tables were bolted down. And to top it all off, Yolie offered to drive Cody up, as Cody had kendo lessons and Yolie had to work her parents store, and they had yet to arrive.<p>

"Kari," Tai said to his sister, "can you message Yolie and ask her where she is?"

"I've tried that already but my phone doesn't get reception up here."

"And that means we can't talk to her or Cody. Great, just great."

"So why don't you use your d-terminal?" Gatomon interjected.

Kari did as Gatomon suggested and found waited for a response, Tai momentarily wondered why he hadn't thought of that. Between cellphones and Facebook the d-terminals had pretty much been neglected, but they could be used anywhere, which was definitely a plus in this scenario.

Tai herd the d-terminal buzz indicating a response

"It's Cody, he said they don't know where they're going, since neither of them have been here before, and they tried phoning us but couldn't get through."

"So what if their lost, Just tell them how to get here." Biyomon said.

Somehow Tai wished it was that simple, but he knew it wasn't. Matt was the one who drove them all here, taking his father's van. Matt knew where he was going and Tai quite honestly hadn't been paying all that much attention. And he doubted that any of the others did either. The problem was that Matt was currently completely occupied by his kitchen duties and those were a rather high priority right now.

Seeing the panicked expression on Tai's face Joe, who was currently applying a make-shift ice pack to his back, decided to intervene.

"Give it to me Kari I know how to get here." The others looked at him incredulously before he explained. "I worked here once for a summer job, I got in 'cause I was the only one with first-aid."

Tai was relieved that the potential crisis had been averted. He began to relax when he saw Matt come out from the kitchen.

"Hey Tai, go to the pump and get some water would ya?"

"What, but that's like a mile away, and Izzy could be here any second."

"First TK said they were leaving at six," Matt stressed the word leaving, "second the pump is like two hundred meters away, you can see it from the cabin."

"Can't you get Weregarurumon to do it" Tai whined "he's faster and stronger."

"Wouldn't that be a gross misuse of our power?" Agumon asked

"Yes" Matt said nodding, "and besides Tai what if someone saw him, don't you think they might get a little scared?"

Tai opened his mouth to protest but Matt quickly cut him off "No buts now get going I need that water now."

As Matt had stated the water pump was not that far away, the problem came when Tai actually tried to pump the water. It took him five minutes just to get anything to come out, and what did had a strange brownish tinge. After running the water for about ten minutes he finally saw something that looked fairly nontoxic before filling the buckets and going back to the cabin, at least he couldn't spill the water in the short walk back.

Or so he thought. Destiny however had different plans, it the form of one clunker car from the nineties, with a barely-legal driver, and an extremely loud horn.

Not exactly knowing how it happened, Tai found himself on the ground, with a bucket over his head. He removed it just in time to watch as Yolie's car nearly took off his leg.

"Whops sorry Tai" came the girl's response.

"Sorry? " Tai gawked. At this point Matt came out to see all the commotion, and found Tai drenched in the water he needed for diner.

"So Tai go for a swim?"

"I'm glad you think it's funny Matt because now we have no water."

"Oh that, well you were taking so long that I just took Joe's ice pack and used that."

To say Tai was a little frustrated was an understatement. He had just nearly been killed trying to get water for the blond, and he didn't even need to. How exactly could this day get worse?

As if he could sense Tai's mood, Cody hastily changed the subject. "Why did Joe have an ice pack?"

"Because he's Joe" Tai responded while shook his head to dry himself off.

"Uh Tai your crest is kind of in your hair" Yolie said.

Tai was thrown off by this comment. "Thanks, – I think – you know mane of a Lion, eye of the Tiger."

"No Tai she means literally, your tag and crest are literally in your hair" Hawkmon said.

Tai quickly checked through his 'mane' and found that indeed his crest was there, but when he moved to put it back to its usual place on his chest he found a tag already there.

Tai pulled them both off and held them in front of him. The one from his chest was the crest of courage, he had no doubt. It was orange and had the familiar sun pattern; the other wasn't any crest he recognized. It was golden, but not a light gold, a very deep one, and it had a pattern more complex than that of the crest of courage, but it vaguely resembled a star.

The others, having realized Tai had two crests, quickly gathered round. "What is it?" Hawkmon asked.

"I think," Tai said a little tentative "It might be an Anti-crest."

"Are you sure?" Matt asked "it looks a little to flashy to be an Anti-crest, maybe it's the crest of miracles or something."

"It's not." Cody said, having seen the crest of miracles briefly when Magnamon digivolved, "The crest of miracles is more radiant, and it's an M."

"So what do we do now?" Armadillomon inquired.

Tai put the crest of courage back on "We show the others, and tell Izzy when he gets here." Tai also wanted to have a talk with Izzy about other things, like if one of the kids he was bringing didn't really have a crest and was faking. Or if, more seriously, Izzy really had known and was still willing to execute this plan with some of the kids missing, if there was a problem he definitely wanted to be told beforehand.

* * *

><p>It wasn't that long before Izzy arrived, along with Davis Ken Mimi and TK. Matt had been worried about sending any of the Digimon out for fear of scaring people, imagine having Imperialdramon land in the forest you were camping in, seriously wasn't Izzy smarter than that. Tai then watched as six more teenagers and their partners climbed off of the Digimon before he reverted back to Wormmon and Veemon. Tai noted that there were eleven total, so Izzy had known there was one missing, probably why he was so antsy lately.<p>

All eighteen Digidestined and eighteen digimon gathered around for introductions. The Japanese Digidestend went first and quickly got themselves out of the way before turning their attention to the others.

The first one was a seventeen year old boy with black hair and green eyes. His partner was a Tapirmon, a small almost pig-like Digimon with a holy ring on its front leg and whose body seemed to disappear into mist as you looked past its midsection. It hovered about a foot of the ground. The boy was well built and held a sophisticated air about him. He bowed to them

"_Call me Steven"_ he said in English, and Sora blushed as he looked up and fixated on her.

The next one, also a boy, was about eighteen, he had tanned skin and a body developed from physical labour. His partner was a candle, but three feet tall and with a face.

"_I'm Raoul, and this is Candlemon._" This time it was Spanish.

Next, one of the two girls came forward. Tai had to admit she looked rather pretty; she was about sixteen with white-blond hair and a well-developed body. Her partner was the puppy-like Salamon, Gatomon's rookie form.

"_Gabrielle_" she said sweetly with a French accent, easily captivating the male portion of the Digidestined.

The other Girl, who looked remarkably plain next to the first, went forward. She looked about fourteen and on her shoulder rested the mouse-like Chuumon.

"_Lucy_" although also carrying a French accent, it sounded rather dull. That or Tai attention was still on Gabrielle.

The next boy to step forward appeared to be a normal nineteen year old from the outside, but when he spoke a level of command was there that was otherwise unrecognizable. His partner looked less inviting, taking the appearance of a child but was all purple, except for a white face. He had a red handkerchief around his neck and two red gloves, and held a small plastic gun in one hand.

"_He's Impmon,_" the boy said in English, "_and I go by Imanas, Imanas Soal._" Form the authority in his voice Tai would have believed him had he known less English

"His name is Max" Izzy corrected, "he's just messing with us."

Everyone looked at the final boy, who got the message. He looked to be about seventeen, and had more girth than he needed by the looks of things. He stuck a finger at himself

"_Robert van Winninghouse the Ninth"_ then he jerked his finger at his partner, who was a small humanoid. Except the dark brown bun-like hat on his head, he was completely beige "_Burgermon_"

This boy also spoke in English as Izzy gave more detailed descriptions. "Gabrielle and Lucy are from the same small town in France, where I think the crests first appeared. Steven is from England, and Max is from America. Robert is from Italy but speaks only English for some reason. And Raoul is from Spain."

"Great, look Izzy, I need to talk to you for a second" Tai said not wanting to waste time, "you guys start without us."

The Japanese Children led the others to the kitchen, where Matt had whipped up an impressive stew. While Tai started to question Izzy.

"You're down one."

"I know listen I thought maybe a crest would pop up last minute."

"You should have at least told us" Tai said.

"I know, I know, but I had everything figured out and I didn't want people to go into this half-hearted" Izzy rationalized. "Look tomorrow I'll see if I can find the last one but it's more important that we deal with this first and lessen the threat."

"We still would have liked to know what was going on Izzy." Tai saw the younger boy hang his head in shame and decided to stop holding out on him. He pulled the crest out of his pocket and tossed it. "Here catch."

Being a full fledge computer geek and not an athlete, Izzy almost missed the light throw. However afterward he stood mystified looking at what he held in his hand.

"Look I know you caught it but it's not that surprising give yourself some credit"

If Izzy hadn't been so relived, he would have glared at Tai, as it was he merely stuttered, "How? Where? Who?"

"It was in a bucket in the cabin, look you got lucky this time but you might not next time understand?"

Izzy smirked, "This is a nice change of pace, don't I normally say that to you?"

"How do you think I know it so well?" Tai smirked "Come on let's get something to eat."

* * *

><p>Diner was, in a word: delicious, especially considering that Matt had made it last-minute from whatever he found inside the cabin. The conversation was, on the other hand, rather strained. For the most part, the Japanese Digidestined remained quiet in an attempt to not seem disrespectful to their guests, and while some could communicate with said guests, even then the conversation was limited to small talk. Both parties were rather anxious; the international Digidestined to figure out why they were shipped to Japan in the first place, and the Japanese to get this whole ordeal over with. After everyone had cleaned their plates, Izzy signalled to TK, Ken and Mimi to start the second phase of his plan.<p>

Mimi rolled her eyes, Ken cleared his throat, and TK pulled out some cue-cards.

"Hey, TK you got him to write down his speech, no fair" Mimi whined.

"Well it's the only way I'm going to be able to translate it."

Mimi turned to Izzy "I want some. Now."

"Mimi please not now okey, besides it would be inefficient to make some before relaying the message." Izzy reasoned, and then started his speech.

"International Digidestined, you now stand in the very spot where seven years ago…"

"Um Izzy, can you give us the abridged version, we still have to translate it" Ken said, interrupting Izzy.

"Fine" Izzy said. TK sighed before throwing away his cards

"We believe a new threat has emerged in the digital world, to combat this threat we require your tags and crests- simple enough for you?" he looked at Ken

"It's better." Ken said before relaying this information to Raoul, he was followed by Mimi who begrudgingly translated to Steven, Robert and Max, leaving TK to slowly stutter the changes to the girls. While the boy's had remained silent, both girls decided to voice their opinion.

"_Slow down lover boy, if you think you're getting any clothing off me before the third date, you've got another thing coming_" Gabrielle said causing TK to blush profusely while the others tried to guess what was exchanged. Lucy on the other hand, rolled her eyes before turning towards the English-speaking boys.

"_Are you idiots seriously considering this? Isn't it obvious that they just want our crests for themselves?_" She said in English.

"_That's not true._" Mimi immediately defended, "_we have our own crests why would we need yours?_"

However the Anglophones were not looking very convinced.

"TK what did you do, why aren't agreeing like the rest?" Davis asked.

"I –I don't know" the still-flustered boy answered.

Tai quickly moved to take control of the situation. "Mimi what seems to be the problem?"

Mimi, who was still arguing with the French girl, turned back to the Japanese Digidestined for a quick second. "They think that were just trying to take their crests to cause were power hungry, or trying to make them week."

"That does make sense" said Cody, "other than the fact we know about Digimon they have little reason to trust us."

Tai knew he had to control the situation quick, he didn't want a brawl to break out, especially inside the cabin.

"Here" he said taking the Crest of courage off from around his neck. "We give them our crests and they give us theirs."

Izzy looked as if he were about to argue but Tai cut him off "No time, if you don't want this to escalate into a full scale battle then you do it." The others begrudgingly agreed while Mimi explained the deal to the International Digidestined.

"_What about those four?_" Steven said, indicating to Davis, Yolie, Ken, and Cody who did not have crests to give.

"_They don't have crests_" Mimi replied, "Look were giving you eight for the price of six, isn't that enough?"

Steven, who had taken the leadership role, at this point, pondered the proposition for a while, before accepting. "_But you guys give us your crests first._" He then took of his crest and signalled for the others to do the same, considering some of them didn't even speak the same language as he did, it was amazing how they all obeyed the Brit.

Mimi once again relayed this to the Japanese Digidestined, who, after getting a nod from Tai, proceeded to give their crests to the others.

They immediately regretted it.

For a group as ethnically divided as this one, it was amazing how the decision to run outside the cabin was mutually made and communicated in the time frame of a quarter of a second.

"I knew this would happen" Izzy muttered as they chased the foreigners outside, where they met them not fleeing, as Tai had expected, but awaiting the Japanese group.

"_Now we have all the power_" Steven said with a wicked smirk. "_Tapirmon, let's get them._"

"So Izzy where's this so called simple, easy and foolproof plan I've been hearing about for the past two weeks?" Mimi said as Tapirmon began to glow "We could really use it right about now."

* * *

><p><strong>Well that took a while, and so will this.<strong>

**What did you think? Was it good? Personally I hated it, I just don't think I'm cut out for this writing thing, not that that's going to stop me. Furthermore, the nest chapter is just picking me to pieces.**

**Also, I thing this separate chapter is longer that the rest of my story so far combined, but I couldn't find an acceptable break point. I also tried to make the each rookie level Digimon fairly ambiguous- with two notable exceptions- as to what demon lord it becomes, come on guess I know you want to. Along with that point, forms closer to the demon lords will be reviled next chapter, along with some action.**

**No characters in any way are meant to imply any stereotypes, whatever their Anti-crest is has little to do with their ethnicity; what you infer is up to you.**

**And to both of you who cared, no I'm not dead, nor is this account. I was busy, procrastination and Midterms were both prime factors, but mostly I blame procrastinating for midterms, man that took a lot of time.**

**So remember review, there will be Cake***


	4. Steven's wisdom

Disclaimer: I am now legally old enough to own digimon…. Still don't

Same as last time, italics denote foreign languages

* * *

><p>"<em>Now we have all the power<em>" Steven said with a wicked smirk. "_Tapirmon, let's get them._"

"So Izzy where's this simple, easy and foolproof plan I've been hearing about for the past two weeks?" Mimi asked as Tapirmon began to glow "We could really use it right about now."

"Well there's always plan B" Izzy said.

"Which is?"

"We fight" Davis said, turning to Veemon, but before they could start the Digivolution process, they were interrupted.

"Wait, a minute" Cody cut across, "if we fight them they're just going to fight back and someone's going to get hurt. They are Digidestined, we should try reasoning with them."

"No time," Tai answered, "we tried that once, it backfired; now we fight them while we still have numbers on our side."

Cody looked as if he was going to protest further. Perhaps it was a remark about trying to find a passive solution, perhaps it was a retort about Tai getting them into this mess in the first place, perhaps he had some cunning plan that no one had thought of yet. Whatever the case, he was silenced by a solar-ray from the newly Digivolved Centuramon which was standing in front of Steven. Realizing Steven's intention most of the foreign Digidestand had their partners evolve as well.

Impmon digivolve to ….Ogremon

Salamon digivolve to …. Blackgatomon

Candlemon digivolve to …. Wizardmon

Chuumon digivolve to …. Sukamon

Steven turned to Robert "_Why didn't you digivolve Burgermon?_" he asked seeing the only inactive Digimon on their side?

"_Are you kidding me? These are the Digidestined, heck they could probably beat us if it was one on one, let alone two on one. But hey, if you want to get yourself beaten to a pulp by no means let me stop you._" The boy replied as he sat himself down.

The Japanese children were taking advantage of this diversion to evolve their own Digimon to the champion level.

"Quick now's our chance, attack" Gabriel said in French, and as only Lucy, Blackgatomon, Sukamon, and TK could understand her, they acted in kind. When Blackgatomon and Sukamon charged the evolving Digimon, Patamon and Gatomon ran to intercept. Gatomon and Blackgatomon were evenly matched, being opposites, but Patamon, only managed to get in one blow before the excrement-shaped Digimon pushed him out of the way. When the champion level went to make good on its victory, however, it founds its way blocked by a bombardment of attacks from Garurumon, Greymon, and Kabutarimon.

Tai couldn't help but let a small smile loose despite the situation. It might not be the best course of action, but secretly he enjoyed fighting alongside Greymon, even more so when they were winning. He watched as Stingmon and Ogremon dueled, the formers speed overpowering the latter's pure strength. Elsewhere Wizardmon launched his thunderball attack, only to have it bounce harmlessly off of Ankylomon's armor before Togemon counter attacked. Centuramon was now staring down both XVmon and Angemon; needless to say he was having multiple issues. Birdramon Aqualimon and Ikkakumon were flipping between the different fights lending support with their long range attacks.

When the foreign Digimon had been sufficiently damaged, Tai gave the order to stop attacking, before directing Mimi, Ken, and TK.

"Tell them that if they surrender now, we won't hurt them or their Digimon."

"And try to make it sound less threatening" Joe cut in.

Once again the interpreters relayed the message, and their opponents started hushed conversations.

"_You know if you had listened to me you wouldn't be in this situation._" Robert said. Steven replied by chewing his lip.

"Well?" asked Tai, despite him speaking Japanese, the meaning was clear.

Steve's expression changed into a smirk as a dark brownish-orange light shot from his chest and enveloped Centuramon.

"We except."

All of the Japanese Digmon rushed the Digivolving champion in an attempt to defeat it before it made it to the ultimate level.

"Eternal Nervana" the new Digimon cried as waves started emitting from his two stones levitating above his hands. As the waves struck the Digimon, they froze, unable to move.

"What are we dealing with here Izzy?" Ken asked as the elder Digidestend pulled out his laptop.

"One step ahead of you, its Wisemon, and ultimate level. Rumor has it the stones he carries have power over space and time." Wisemon was fully robed from head to foot, his face was obscured by a hood and all that was visible where two shining orbs. About half way down his body, what where the remains of two wing shot out from his back.

"_Now Digidestind surrender and I might let you off easy_"

"Not in this lifetime" Gatomon said, despite being unable to speak English she still understood loud and clear. "Yolie, Kari ready?" the champion asked.

"Ready" the duo replied, and with that signal Gatomon's tail ring began to glow, both temporarily blinding Wisemon and freeing Gatomon from is spell. The cat Digimon quickly found her way to Aquailimon, and the two began to Digivolve together.

By the time the Digivolution had completed, Wisemon had recovered, but for some reason he made no move to fight the newcomer. As even as Silphymon was readying it's static force the demon-man Digimon remained still.

"Pummel whack"

"Thunderball"

Wizardmon and Ogremon launched their techniques together in an attempt to distract the ultimate level. It worked, but now the two were clearly outmatched by the DNA Digimon.

"_Step aside boys_" came a French voice as Gabrielle held up her Digivice, and Blackgatomon was subsequently engulfed in darkness, and replaced by a familiar form, Ladydevimon.

"Not YOU again" Silphymon said as the two engaged in battle, the two were fairly closely matched, Silphymon, having more experience, was the better fighter, but Ladydevimon had Ogremon, Wizardmon and Sukamon, supporting her.

Tai began to grow worried, if Wisemon decided he wished to join the fight they were in trouble, Silphymon couldn't win against two ultimates. Fortunately the Digimon was just standing there, then it Tai him; he **can't** move! If Wisemon moved is spell over Greymon and the others would probably break, leaving them free to not only intervene, but also get allow them to obtain two new DNA Digimon.

"Kari, Yolie, see if you can get Silphymon to hit Wisemon"

"Are you crazy? Were hardly evenly matched when we're just fighting Ladydevimon, what good would hitting Wisemon do?" Yolie replied

"It will free up the rest of the Digimon; then we can get Pailendramon and Shakkuamon in there as well."

"Alright, Siliphymon new target were going after Wisemon."

Unfortunately, while Silphimon was distracted by the new plan, Ladydevimon went for the kill, knocking the DNA Digimon to the ground.

"_Face it you can't win, that's obviously why your friend left._" Steven taunted.

"_Friend? _" Mimi said before looking around "hey where's Davis?"

Tai looked around, and just as Mimi said he couldn't find Davis anywhere, it was like he ran away. Except for the fact Davis would NEVER run away, heck it was hard enough to get the kid to give up if he already had one foot in the grave.

Tai's thoughts were interrupted when a snort cut the tension.

Tai turned expecting to see one of the foreigners boasting but instead saw a sight he perhaps saw twice in his entire life, Ken suppressing his laughter.

"Uh Ken, why are you laughing?" Matt asked.

"Because I know what happens next" he said between outbursts.

'okeeaay' thought Tai, but once again his attention was diverted this time by the streak bursting out of the brush and heading straight for Steven. The English boy turned in time to receive a blow to the face, before his attacker took advantage of his shock to snack something from his victim's hand.

"Tai catch" Davis said as he threw something brown and orange to the older boy.

Tai caught it with ease, and then examined it, the crest of courage. He then looked up, Wisemon had turned when his partner was attacked freeing the Greymon and the others.

"Greymon mega now." Tai said as he watched the dinosaur shrink only to grow back to about the size of a tall human.

Steven, who had just detangled himself from Davis, turned to see his new foe, and though Tai couldn't understand, it he knew the boy was swearing.

It did not take long for the Brit to recover however as he quickly threw is other crest he was holding - the crest of sincerity- to Max.

"_You guys get out of here, if this is what they can do with their crests then we need them gone_"

Max and Raoul along with Ogremon and Wizardmon went one way, while Gabrielle, Ladydevimon, Lucy and Sukamon went the other.

Tai reacted quickly as well "left or right of me, where did your crest go?" he ordered,

TK Kari Izzy and Joe were on one side of him while Mimi Sora and Matt went on the other.

"Perfect, Cody and Yolie, you go with your DNA partners, Davis and Ken go with Matts group, quickly now. And don't be afraid to go to mega if necessary. I'll handle things here."

Tai watched them leave, Matt's group, went after Raoul and Max, while Izzy's went after the French girls, then he turned his attention back to Steven. And Robert who was still sitting there.

"Last chance, I only want your crest" he said pointing to his own in an attempt to get the translation across.

Steven looked as if he were to play dumb, until Robert tossed his own to Tai.

"_Better do what he says_"

Steven looked as if he was about to throw a fit, "_go Wisemon._"

The dark Digimon moved forward, but WarGreymon launched his terra force attack at Wisemon, who merely held out his hands.

"Pandora's dialogue" the terra force stalled for a second, before rebounding on Wargreymon.

"Shit" this time it was Tai who swore, "how are we supposed to beat something that can throw all our attacks back at us?"

"Tai you're over thinking things," Wargreymon declared hurling himself towards his foe "he's an ultimate" Wargreymon said as he delivered a single punch to Wisemon, and the Digimon reverted back to Tapirmon.

Steven quickly grabbed Tapirmon and turned to run, but found his way blocked by Wargreymon, who extended a single claw and snatched his crest from him.

"There, was that so bad?" Tai asked

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><p><strong>I hope that was sufficient. Personally, I think it could be better, but I can't seem to make it better<strong>

**Anyone actually know the gender of Silplymon? I've just avoided gender based pronouns**

**Reviews, some authors refuse to complete fics without them, not me though**

**You should review for that.**


	5. Typhoon Troubles

Disclaimer: What does it take to own digimon? The ability to create virtual life simulators? The idea to make a franchise off a popular game? Adequate writing skills? A piece of paper that legally says you do? In any case, I don't have it.

Same as always italics = non-Japanese, English = Japanese

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><p>Cody ducked as Ankylomon ran through another dense thicket. The group – Cody, TK, Kari, Yolie, Joe, and Izzy – were riding the dinosaur digimon, in their pursuit of the two French Digidestand. In the interest of speed, Ankylomon and Angemon had decided to hold off DNA digivolving until after they confronted the foreigners, as Shakkoumon was rather slow. This was also the reason Gomamon had de-digivolved and was currently riding with Joe.<p>

The small boy sagged as he thought about what they were doing. While he agreed that they needed to recover the crests- both regular and anti- he did not believe they needed to do it by force. After all these were fellow children, sensible and sentient. Not beings of pure chaos like Kimeramon, or pure evil like Malomyotismon, he had every belief that they could be reasoned with rather than fought. Heck, even the Digimon emperor was further gone then these kids and he eventually came around (as much as Cody hated to admit it), so, if they could reason with these children maybe they could recover the crests WITHOUT putting the digital world, or the real one for that matter, in jeopardy. But the only one here who could communicate with the girls was TK, and he was sold on the idea of conflict.

Cody looked around. As far as politics went, Yolie was normally sympathetic towards him, and he could probably get at least one vote from Joe or Izzy. Maybe, just maybe, if he put it out in the open he could get the ruling over turned. He decided to chance it.

"Guys can we stop for a minute and talk about what we're doing?"

"Well I wouldn't recommend stopping, but we can talk about it." Izzy replied.

"I just don't understand why everyone is so keen on fighting. These are Digidestand, we're Digidestand, we should be helping each other not fighting." Cody said, cutting straight to the point.

"We HAVE to fight, Cody" TK answered "I've tried talking to them it didn't work; now we have to use other methods."

"But why do those 'other methods' have to include fighting, can't we just, I don't know, pay them or something?"

"Unless you have hundreds of euros on you I don't think that will work" TK replied.

Not accepting his answer Cody instead looked to Joe in an attempt to get a second opinion.

"I know you don't like it, but in this case fighting is our best option." The blue haired teen replied.

Still not satisfied he looked to Izzy.

"Confrontation is the most logical course of action."

In desperation, Cody decided to approach from a new angle.

"But they can be reasoned with, I mean what about Blackwargreymon; or Ken" he directed the last part at Yolie.

"Well…I.." the lavender haired girl trailed off, but TK quickly interjected.

"Even both of them still needed to be outmuscled before they saw the light."

Cody gathered himself for a last ditch attempt but Izzy cut him off.

"Look, maybe in another situation you might be right, but the fact of the matter is they don't have YOUR crest, now everyone prepare for battle were almost on top of them." He said while looking up from his digivice.

A few seconds later Ankylomon burst out of the brush revealing a lake, where Gabrielle and Lucy were resting as Ladydevimon patrolled the skies.

Silphymon, aided by Angemon, immediately flew to engage the dark ultimate while Kabutarimon and Ankylomon enclosed the francophones against the water.

"_Last chance, give us the crests_" TK said as he and the rest of the children dismounted ankylomon.

"_Not on your life_" Lucy replied as Sukamon charged. The attempt was rendered futile when a single blast from Kabutarimon sent the weaker champion into the water, Lucy looked distressed, and shot the Japanese children a glare. To say the glare had no effect would be incorrect. Not because it scared her captors, but because it caused a dark green glow to emerge from just under where Sukamon had submerged. The next second a wave emitted from the lake miraculously missing Lucy and Gabrielle, but colliding directly with Kabutarimon and Ankylomon.

By this point, Gomamon had digivolved to Ikkakumon, and he stood forward to face the new form emerging from the lake. It was slightly humanoid, but was all blue except two orange fins resembling wings on its back. Also its head was shaped like an octopus without the tentacles. Each one of his four limbs however, ended in multiple tentacles resembling hands and feet.

"Dragomon" Izzy said looking at his computer, "ultimate level, evil god digimon, he's called the dark priest of the sea and it's said that each of his tentacles have the ability to multiply, allowing him to regenerate if needed."

Cody bit his lip. He knew things could get bad if this kept up. This was exactly why he didn't want to fight them in the first place, these girls were digidestaned, and as such they shared the uncanny ability to receive a power boost when backed into a corner. By the look on Lucy's face this hadn't happened before, and probably wouldn't have happened if they had listened to him. Still Cody knew this wasn't the time for I-told-you-sos; if they wanted to win now they needed Shakkoumon. The young boy looked towards his DNA partner before they shared a knowing nod.

"Ikkakumon, Kabutarimon, cover us, Angemon get ready" the blond said. Angemon and Ankylomon prepared for their DNA sequence, while Ikkakumon and Kabutarimon fired their attacks at Dragomon.

"malevolent mist" the ultimate shouted, as a dense, grey fog emitted from its center. This technique, which was only intended to disperse the two attacks, had profound repercussions. Near immediately, Kari fell to her knees, which caused TK and Yolie to stop and run to her aid. Sensing the distress coming from both its partners, Silphymon turned to make sure they were alright, allowing Ladydevimon to score a direct hit, sending the DNA digimon into the ground where it reverted back into Gatomon and Hawkmon.

The look that next crossed TK's face was one that Cody had only seen a handful of times before, but at the same time made the younger boy know that reasoning with the blond was fruitless.

"New plan Angemon" TK said to his partner. Cody didn't know what that plan was, just like he didn't know why that mist was having such a large effect on the battle, but apparently Angemon did. As the angel flew up to engage Ladydevimon, the next second his staff emitting a bright golden light, blinding all except TK, who had placed himself with is back to his partner. After Cody's eyes readjusted, he couldn't believe what he saw.

"Wow" Joe said.

"Is that?" izzy asked.

"I think it is." Cody replied.

There, standing next to the lake, was TK, with his hand unmodestly clutching at Gabrielle's chest.

"I didn't know TK was so forward" yolie said.

"He isn't" Kari replied earning herself a quick glance from everyone.

"Not like that" she rolled her eyes, before everyone turned their eyes back to the spectacle.

The French girl shoved the Japanese boy, but it had no effect.

"_Ladydevimon, get him off me_" the girls spoke, and, as her partner moved to reply, the dark digimon quickly had to dodge a swift, pink sword.

"See" Kari explained "he was going for his crest the whole time." As the group now watched Ladydevimon and Magnaangemon battle, the latter having the clear upper hand.

"_Stop playing around, finish him_" Gabrelle ordered as she was struggling with TK, the boy was trying to get his crest off of her, and she was seriously considering letting him at this point, just to get him off her.

As Ladydevimon pulled back and morphed her hand into a spear, Magnaangemon began drawing a circle in the sky, Dragomon decided to take advantage of his foes temporary lack of interest to attack the Japanese children, in an attempt to quickly win the battle. He found his way blocked, by Ikkakumon, Kabutarimon and Ankylomon. While these three were not strong enough to defeat the ultimate, they were certainly strong enough to hold him off.

Cody on the other hand was in shock. If Magnaangemon was doing what he thought he was doing then there would be no going back for the French digimon, but before he could react Ladydevimon was moving to make the final blow. Or at least that's what she thought. Unfortunately for her, Magnaangemon managed to dodge the attack and Ladydevimon kept going, straight into the opening gate of destiny. All that came out the other side was a small puff a data.

Now the angel set his sights on Dragomon, and as he did a typhoon surrounded aquatic digimon directing him right into the open gate. Dragomon would not go without a fight, and lashed out his tentacles grabbing Magnaangemon. The angel slashed at the tentacles, but every time he cut one tentacle two more appeared in its place. He was rescued as a combination attack from Ikkakumon and Kabutarimon forced his foe to Relase, and the holy digimon promptly flew out of reach as a second cloud of data emerged from behind the gate.

Cody was ashamed, he had just watched two relatively innocent digimon be killed, and by an ally no less. The two French girls were much worse off. The two were absolutely devastated, and they only looked slightly relieved as the two data clouds situated themselves beside the girls and turned into digi-eggs. They also showed no resistance as Izzy, Joe, and Kari took back their respective crests as well as their own. It was, Cody thought grimly, as if their spirit had been destroyed completely.

He surveyed the battle field, which was mostly unharmed, except for a few small craters from stray attacks between Ladydevimon and Silphymon. And the typhoon was still coming from the middle of the lake.

"Can you at least close that thing" Cody said to Magnaangemon, more aggressively than he intended.

The ultimate quickly looked to what Cody was mentioning, before tensing up.

"I did."

"Then what's that?" Joe asked

As if waiting for that cue the typhoon expanded capturing all eight Digidestaned in the immediate area before moving away to find new targets.

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><p><strong>an**

**I'd call this a cliff hanger but I'll give you two guesses as tow what happens next.**

**Originally this chapter was going to also involve matt and the others, but this was long enough I decided to post it separately**

**One of the focuses of this chapter is Cody, mostly cause he often gets shoved to the side in a lot of fics, because (or I suspect it is because) he is not involved in many popular romantic pairings. **

**As for Dragomon, his purpose was two-fold, one to be a rather random dark digvolution of Sukamon (which according to the digimon wiki can actually happen) as well provide a reason for Magnaangemon fighting and killing the dark digimon, instead of having shakkoumon (and therefore Cody) do it. **

**Finally remember**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**

**All writing and no reviews makes jack a sad author**


	6. Overkill

Disclaimer: if you are reading this, and you own digimon, or you know the person who owns digimon, then obviously I don't.

_Foreign language_

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><p>"Can't you go faster?" Davis asked<p>

"Not with three people on my back." Birdramon replied, Davis responded with a groan.

"Relax Davis, they're on foot so we should catch them in no time." Sora said.

"Yeah but we would have caught them by now with Imperialdramon." Immediately after their group (consisting of Matt, Sora, Mimi, Davis and Ken) had left to pursue Max and Raoul, Davis had suggested they ride the lightning quick dragon Digimon. The idea had been quickly dismissed because Imperialdramon was too easy to spot, and too quick. This didn't sit well with Davis as he couldn't believe there was such a thing as "too quick" when trying to catch someone.

Besides, the last time the foreigners got a look at a mega they ran scared, so if they were faced with Imperialdramon they would probably just hand over the crests and run. The others, led by Matt, had decided to rather stay in champion and try to trap their foe, which was why Davis was currently riding Birdramon with Mimi, Sora and Palmon, and Matt was riding Garurumon with Ken. The idea was that the two younger members were to communicate through the d-terminals, and between the two groups they would ambush the foreign digidestand.

"Tell Ken that we're ready" Sora said looking up from her digivice.

"'Bout time" Davis said as he scanned the area. He found an open clearing in the forest, and double-checked the trajectory on his digivice, as he suspected the foreigners were heading straight towards the opening. He decided to suggest that area as the ambush site. After hearing agreement he sent the message to Ken. He then waited a few seconds for the reply

"Ken says their good." Davis said as he read the message. By this time Birdramon had arrived at the clearing and the waited for their quarry to come out of the brush. A few minutes later the two foreigners and their Digimon came shooting out; completely unaware of what was waiting for them. Davis smiled, like lambs to the slaughter.

A few seconds later the pair were all too aware of the Japanese Digidestined's presence as Birdramons meteor wing rained fireballs down upon them. Ogremon's bulky figure left him wide open to this attack, but Wizardmmon managed to evade. His success was short lived, ass a needle spray technique from Togemon quickly sent him down to join Ogremon. Before Raoul or Max could contemplate running, Garurumon came up from behind, and XVmon and Stingmon filled the gaps.

Davis watched as both Mimi and Ken told the pair to surrender, both in their respective languages of course.

"_Why should we surrender to you? You guys only have champions too, so as far as I see it, were even._" Max said. Raoul said something along the same lines, but it made Ken go red and he refused to translate it.

"Looks like we need to show them some more power," Davis said before turning to Ken "Paildramon?"

The genus sighed before agreeing "Paildramon."

Stingmon and XVmon began to glow and fuse together. Davis always felt a small sense of pride when he DNA digivolved. The idea of two digimon coming together and making one better than either of them separately somehow just sat well with him. Not to mention Paildramon just kicked but.

"_Surrender now?_" Davis asked hoping that his words would be translated for him. They weren't, but that was mostly because Max had taken advantage of everyone's temporary lack of interest to digivolve Ogremon into a new form. Davis didn't need the digimon analyser to identify this one, it was one he had seen before, and had temporarily even held off imperialdramon.

"Skullsatamon…" he quickly looked to Ken, and they nodded in understanding as paildramon was once again enveloped in the familiar light. Skullsatamon however wasted no time. He quickly flew in the air and held his staff out "nail bone" he yelled as a bright light blinded all the digidestined. When Davis had opened his eyes he saw two things. One Imperialdramon had finished digivolving. Two Max and Raoul were nowhere in sight.

"Where'd they go?" Matt asked.

"Raoul went that way." Mimi said pointing to her left. "And Max went that way" she said pointing to her right.

"How'd you even …" Davis trailed off as he looked up from Mimi's arms to see a pair of hot pink sunglasses on her face.

"When did you find the time to do that?" Ken asked.

Mimi ignored the question and turned to Sora. "And you said I shouldn't bring these."

"I said you didn't need to bring thirty-seven pairs of sunglasses" the girl corrected.

"Whatever."

Davis decided it was about time to take control of the situation. "Just like before, separate based upon where your crest went." He commanded.

Davis looked to see that Matt and Sora were poised to go after Raoul while Mimi was going after Max. He figured that they would probably need Imperialdramons strength to beat the dark ultimate, but Ken was the only one who could talk to Raoul.

"Imperialdramon," Davis said voicing his thoughts, "do you need to be with ken to stay mega?" he asked.

"Yes it takes your combined power" the dragon digimon said.

Davis quickly shook his head, "never mind, it's not like this should take long after all." He said, after all imperialdramon was faster than the eye could follow.

"Ken, Mimi, Togemon, jump on imperaldramon we've got get moving. Matt, Sora, good luck" he said.

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><p>Unfortunately for Davis the separation took longer than he would have liked, a fact that accentuated the frustration he felt riding Imperialdramon.<p>

"Why are we running through the forest again? Can't imperialdramon fly at light speed or something?"

"Not quite," Ken answered, "besides if we were going that fast we'd overshoot and end up in America."

"But why is the alternative running THROUGH a forest" Davis asked as Imperaldramon demolished another line of trees.

"Because this way is less conspicuous" Mimi said.

Davis replied by indicating the path of broken trees and crushed brush behind them "and that's not conspicuous?"

"Fair point" ken conceded "Imperialdramon it's time to fly."

"'Bout time" Davis and the giant digimon said together as imperialdramon leapt into the air and spread its wings. It didn't take long for the dragon to catch up to Max and Skullsattamon, before anyone could give the command the group landed in front of the American.

"_Done yet?_" Mimi asked.

"_Not quite_" came the reply as skullsatamon charged the imperaldramon. As the dragon moved to counter, skullsatamon quickly dove to the side striking a glancing blow against its wing. Imperaildramon quickly reared itself to face the demon digimon, but the group soon found a pattern emerging. No matter how hard he tried imperaldramon just couldn't catch his foe.

"Whats's going on?" Mimi asked. "isn't imperaldramon supposed to be supper fast, why can't he catch an ultimate?"

"Speed doesn't equal agility" Ken answered "Imperaldramon may be fast, but that's going one direction, he's not meant to be nimble."

The conversation was brought to a halt as Skullsatamon made his way to imperialdramons ridding carriage, and one of his blasts deflected off the force field. Davis's mind was going a mile a minute, de-digivolving to Paildramon might solve the agility issue, but it put the two digimon on far more even terms than he liked. If Togemon could go to ultimate they would probably win, as Lillymon was rather nimble herself, but right now they didn't have the crest of sincerity.

"Any ideas" he asked looking for suggestions, after a few seconds of blank stares he got an answer from an unlikely source.

"I have one" imperialdramon said, "but it might be a little excessive."

"Does it involve destroying the forest?" Mimi asked

"No."

"Could it kill us?"

"No."

"Will it kill them?"

"Probably not."

"Then let's do it" Davis said.

"Right" imperialdramon said as his body slow began to morph. As the mega changed into his bipedal form, Davis couldn't help but think that maybe the digimon had forgotten about the fact he had passengers, as he and the other three were currently plummeting towards the earth. The boy shut his eyes waiting for the inevitable impact, it never came, and he opened his eyes to see Imperialdramons force field stopping his fall.

Skullsatamon saw the change, but apparently didn't think to change his battle strategy; the ultimate immediately flew at Imperialdramon again. This time however, when he rolled to the side, the dark digimon found his way blocked by a massive hand which swatted him to the ground. Despite the fact it wasn't a real attack; the force behind the blow was so great it caused a small crater around the then-ultimate now-rookie digimon. The group allowed Max to run to his partner before surrounding him and asking for the crests one last time. This time, understanding that he was completely out matched, the Anglophone handed both the crest of sincerity and his own anti-crest over. This left the group with a new problem.

"What do we do with him?" davis asked

"I don't know," Ken said, "can't leave him here and expect him to get home, can't bring him with us in case he interferes, can't trust him to go back to the cabin by himself, and we can't drop him off in America."

"I've got it!" Mimi exclaimed. She then held her digivice out to Togemon. When the process had finished, Mimi explained her plan.

"We'll just use Lilymon's flower wreath to tie them up." Not waiting to hear any objections, Lilymon immediately set about wrapping max and Impmon to a nearby tree, the two were understandably less than thrilled.

"_What are you doing?_"

"_Tying you up so you don't go running away._"

"_How do I know you won't just leave me here?_"

Lilymon looked around at the partially ruined and crater filled landscape before answering, "_don't worry, I think we'll be able to find you_"

"_But does it have to be pink?_"

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><p>A few minutes later the group was back on imperialdramon and heading towards Matt, Sora, Raoul, and their respective partners. This trip took a bit longer, mostly because the group had to cover all the ground they covered chasing Max before they could move towards the other group. The good news was that it appeared Matt and Sora had confronted Raoul because the dots on the digivice had stopped moving. A small part of Davis hoped that the two had recovered their crests before he arrived, so they could be done and report back. A larger, more dominant part hopped that they were in trouble so he could bust in and save the day. The larger part won.<p>

Imperialdramon arrived to find Garurumon and Birdramon on the ground with Phantomon standing between them waving his scythe dangerously.

"What happened?" Davis asked

"Don't know" Matt replied, "one second we had Wizardmon down for the count and the next Phantomon was staring us down."

"_Look Raoul_" Ken reasoned "_it's over, we beat Max and we have a mega, Phantomon doesn't stand a chance. Give up and no one else has to get hurt._"

Raoul was silent for a good minute; it was actually making Davis rather impatient. When the Spaniard spoke up however, it had immediate results.

"_Get the redhead._"

Ken quickly called out to Sora trying to convey what he heard before it was too late. However even if Raoul had been speaking plain Japanese, Sora wouldn't have had time to react as Phantomon appeared behind her immediately and pressed his scythe to her neck.

"Sora" Matt called out to his girlfriend, after this a look crossed his face which Davis had never seen on the boy before, but if the younger blond was any indication it meant he was about to do something incredibly reckless.

"Relax" he said out to his senior, "we planned for this."

"You planned for this?" Matt sounded sceptical

"Okay, Ken planned for this, whatever, the point is we have a plan."

"That being…."

"Where's Palmon?" Matt didn't particularly like the game Davis was paying, but before he could scold the boy, he was distracted when a blast of energy shot the scythe out of Phantomon's hand. Had he looked past Phantomon, the boy probably would have seen Lilymon emerge from the forest, cannon in hand. As it was, he was too busy consoling his girlfriend, so busy that he didn't register Phantomon grabbing his scythe and hurling it towards the pair until a yell from Davis alerted him. Instinctively he shoved Sora out of the way, but had left himself hide open, he quickly prepared for the inevitable.

However he managed to evade his fate as a single blast from imperialdramon eliminated both the scythe and Phantomon, leaving only an egg in its wake.

Sora quickly ran back to Matt, making sure he was alright, while Mimi, Ken, and Davis retrieved the last of the crests from Raoul. No one in the group was prepared for what happened next, as the next minute a wall of water rushed to meet them from seemingly out of nowhere. The group was caught comply out of the blue as the wave washed over them and they felt a semi-familiar pull.

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><p><strong>AN **

**Originally this chapter was supposed to go with the last one, but I decided they were both large enough to stand apart. For this chapter I decided to write it mostly in Davis's perspective, because I was trying really hard not to make him look like a complete idiot as I have seen many people do. I also put it Matt's perspective at the end because I thought it fit better.**

**Also to the reviewer who was confused, Iori is Cody, as I explained in the first chapter, but Cody is his American name. I'm surprised that out of all ten characters with different names between the American and Japanese version, you only singled out his.**

**By the way, I don't invent any of the digimon in this story, so if you want to know what one looks like, just Google it.**

**Review, or I'll find you.**


	7. Scientific process

Did you know I wrote this mid-January, I just never edited it till now?

Disclaimer: Chaos theory is quite amazing. One subset states that whatever you have no physical proof of at any given time you don't know. By applying this to international copyright laws until you check the official documentation, for all you know I do own digimon. However, every time you check for the foreseeable future, I don't own digimon.

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><p>When Izzy awoke, he felt a slight pounding in his head, a feeling that was accentuated by the hushed murmurs and other oddly distinct sounds of people trying to be quiet around him. When he finally opened his eyes he found himself on a beach. It took a few seconds for him to remember what had happened. The anti-crests, the battles at the camp grounds and the lake, and lastly the typhoon….The typhoon! That thought got izzy up like a rocket. He quickly glanced around, while he was still at a lake, this one was undoubtedly bigger than the one he left behind, the surrounding trees were also unlike any he had seen on earth before, logically there was only one place he could be.<p>

"The Digital World" Izzy muttered, he did not expect a reply, so was surprised when Tentomon landed beside him.

"Izzy your awake" the beetle exclaimed "how do you feel?"

"A bit of a headache but otherwise fine, how are the others?"

"All the Digimon were fine after passing through the gate," Tentomon had correctly assumed that Izzy had deduced the true nature of the typhoon, "Cody and the two girls were the only humans awake though. The girls took their Digieggs and ran. Cody decided to nurse you guys back to health, TK woke up first, and Kari woke up a few seconds before you did. Yolie and Joe are still out."

"Interesting" the bearer of knowledge said while he booted up his laptop. Know the imminent questioning he decided to explain "It's so we can find the French girls; I can use my computer as an amplifier of the digivices signal and home in on them."

"Does that even make sense?" Izzy turned as he herd the question, apparently he and Tentomon had woken Yolie.

"It does, trust me I've done this before." Izzy answered, at this point his computer had finished loading and Izzy began to scour the screen. Instead of finding eight signals – six from their group and two from the francophones – he found eighteen, indicating everyone at the camp had been brought here. "At least now we know it probably wasn't Magnaangemon's fault"

"See" said Patamon to no one in particular.

"Quiet you'll wake Joe" Cody scolded, apparently the eight had only just noticed Izzy's recovery.

"Too late" came a groggy voice, indicating Joe had indeed awakened.

"Well since everyone's up anyways, I received some mail from Davis, that say's that they think they're in the Digital World too." Kari said

"As is Tai, and everyone else at camp." Izzy responded showing everyone his monitor, "it's getting late, ask them if they can get Imperialdramon and we can wrap everything up tonight."

"Right," There was a semi-awkward pause as the group awaited the response, "Davis said that's not an option tonight."

"What?" Izzy was stunned before he reviewed the wording "Can they do it tomorrow?" Another pause before a nod; "okay tell them to get some sleep and contact us tomorrow morning."

"Wait" Kari asked, "why can't we just jump through the television and go home that way?"

"Doesn't work I'm afraid, the televisions take you back out to the computer you entered in, but we didn't enter a computer so it won't work."

"So we're stuck here?" Yolie whined "Great now were never going to get back and…"

"Calm down Yolie" Joe said "we've gotten out before, we can do it again, and it's just a simple matter of contacting Genni"

"Who according to my calculations is on the other side of the world, small potatoes for Imperaldramon, but far too much for anyone else." Izzy finished.

"Regardless shouldn't we be look for the others," Cody asked.

"Don't worry Cody, their tough and have three Megas, they'll be fine" Gatomon answered.

"Not them, I mean the international Digidestand, especially the ones WITHOUT digimon" he shot this last comment at TK, who seemed to withdraw a bit.

"Not worth it" Izzy explained, "if we try to round them up tonight they'll just try to escape again" seeing the younger boys determined look he softened up "don't worry, by now no digimon are going to attack humans, were heroes here, as long as they don't provoke a fight everything should be fine."

Cody was not very happy with Izzy's explanation, but was compliant nonetheless. The group split up to find an adequate camp site for the night, as they were searching, Joe made his way beside Izzy.

"Hey" the blue haired boy said.

"Hey" Izzy replied, waiting for the other to initiate the conversation.

"It's a shame" Joe continued.

"What's a shame?"

"Those two, TK and Cody, they get along almost all the time but when it comes to killing evil digimon they disagree completely"

"You can't expect the two of them to agree on everything" Izzy reasoned "look TK lost Patamon when he was fighting the darkness, it's obviously a touchy subject. Similarly Cody modeled his life after his father, who believed that you should never kill a man, no matter what. Whichever way you're trying to go, it's going to end badly."

"I'm not saying we choose a side, I'm just saying we should help them see some middle ground, after all neither of them are going to come straight out with it, and that resentment is going to build up."

"This isn't the time to practice your psychology skills Joe, right now we have to be focused on getting everyone out of here alive."

Seeing that he wasn't going to win, Joe changed tactics "And what if it affects their teamwork? What if we need Shakkoumon, and for whatever reason they can't DNA digivolve."

Izzy was about to retort that they didn't need Shakkoumon when they could pull out both Ankylomon and Magnaangemon and have both more quality and quantity when he stopped himself. He never was and advocate of a one-track attack strategy, and for all he knew there could very well be a point where Shakkoumon made more sense. "Fine, but I'm talking to Cody, you can deal with PMS TK" Izzy said, recalling a term Matt had once used to explain exactly how TK acted when pushed about Patamons death.

The genus then moved over to a cliff where Cody was standing leaving a bemused Joe behind. The younger boy was facing the cliff wall, and appeared to be inspecting it. Izzy shushed Tentomon's questions about how he was going to approach the subject, and then proceed to ask Cody what he was doing.

"I was thinking about getting Digmon to make a cave, but I don't know if the rocks are strong enough"

Izzy inspected the cliff a bit before responding "looks pretty strong to me, but we should get Digmons opinion, still it's probably where we're sleeping tonight. Look about the battle…"

"Their no need for you to tell me I'm wrong, I already heard that enough"

"You know how I taught Tai how to spell assume?" seeing Cody's confused look he continued "when you assume you make an ass out of u and me"

Cody glared at the attempted joke before taking the bait "so what were you going to say."

"I was going to say that the first time we came to the Digiworld, we had no clue what we were doing." Cody's expression didn't change but interrupted again.

"If this is about Devimon then-"

"You assumed again, this isn't about Devimon OR TK" he paused for Cody to calm down before continuing, "anyway, the first time we were just kids, and yet we were forced into this dog-eat dog world. Often times, we ended up in fights with digimon not because they were evil, but most likely because we wandered onto their territory. Living in that world we learned – all of us – that sometimes violence is the only way."

"So you see" Izzy continued ignoring the glare Cody sent him "when we ended up fighting the real bad guys things only escalated. But to be completely honest I envy you."

At this Cody's glare turned into a look of confusion, "When we were kids, all this stuff just impressed itself into our heads, sure we may be smart enough not to kill someone who insults us in class, but when it comes down to the digimon, were relatively simple minded. If we think they're going to kill us, we kill them first. Since we were kids this stuff just seems natural, and since TK was the youngest it made more firm an impression on him, that combined with the Devimon incident makes him more pigheaded than Davis when you get down to it."

"Look I know you don't want anyone to get hurt, and I respect that, but you're going to have to be patient with the rest of us. As for me, remember Cody I take everyone's opinion into consideration before acting. So does Tai, so does Davis, your voice is heard, even if you don't always think so."

* * *

><p>When the group once again collect, they found that Cody's spot was indeed the best. The next step was to locate food and firewood for the night. The jobs were divided evenly; Izzy and Cody would see to the newly-excavated cave, insuring it's stability and livability, Kari and Yolie would fly on Aqualimon to where Kari had early located some palm-like fruit, and Joe and TK would collect some firewood. However after fifteen minutes of walking aimlessly through the forest, Joe knew it wouldn't take TK long to figure out his ulterior motive. His suspicions were confirmed when the younger of the two spoke up.<p>

"Joe I think we'd better head back now, if we collect any more firewood we'll need Zudomon to hall it back to camp."

"Yeah I guess," Joe said weekly "actually I wanted to talk to you."

"Okay, what about?"

"About earlier today with Cody" as Joe said this he began to clean his glasses – an old nervous habit.

"I don't see what the problem is, Cody's got a good heart but because of that he isn't quick to violence. It's actually a good thing when you think about it."

"That's not what I was going to say" Joe briefly wondered why he always had to explain himself, "here try this; remember back when we first came to the Digital World?"

"I am writing a book about it, aren't I?" TK zoned out for a second, lost in memory. He quickly snapped out of it and asked "What's this got to do with Cody?"

"Humor me okay," Joe replied watching TK put aside his firewood and started to lean on a nearby tree "now when we first came to the digiworld what was the one thing you always complained about?"

"The 'mean monsters' trying to eat us for lunch?" the blonde paused, but after seeing the serous look from Joe he responded seriously, "I guess the fact that everyone was treating me like a little kid."

"And how did that make you feel?"

"I don't know, undervalued. Wait is that what this is about." Joe gave a small nod "that's stupid Cody is one of the most sensible guys I know."

"And that's why when he makes a point you instantly dismiss it?"

"When have I ever done that?"

"Earlier today, when we were riding Ankylomon." Joe resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he really thought that was implied.

"I wasn't trying to, we just didn't have time talk about meaningless stuff" TK defended.

"Obviously it wasn't meaningless to Cody" the blue haired boy said, then after receiving no reply he continued, "look I know most of the time you're a considerate guy but there are times you act, regardless of how it affects others, including Cody"

TK didn't answer for a while, but when he did his voice was rather strained. "You know Joe, that whenever I see an evil force, I just can't help but picture Devimon in it's place, and then…"

"I know, but Cody did have a valid point; those were girls we were fighting, not the source of all evil."

TK shook his head, "just because they were one doesn't mean they're not the other."

"Don't you think you're being a little harsh? It's not like…"

"NO" TK nearly screamed "if they were let free the damage they could have done would be massive, this isn't the time for mercy. If we let them continue to grow their strength then none of us stand much of a chance."

Against his better judgement, Joe decided state his mind "don't you think that maybe your just using this whole Devimon thing as an excuse to act aggressively and ignore the consequences?"

"Are you saying that I asked for this? That I wanted that to happen?" Joe vigorously shook his head, kicking himself for bringing up the topic as the blond continued, "good, because what I went through, it was hell, understand. No one, but no deserves to go through that."

"But TK," Joe said meekly, "isn't that what you just did to those girls?" Joe braced himself for a blow, although he himself had never seen TK like this before, if the Matt was any indication, he was about to receive a strong punch in the face.

It never came, instead TK's entire body seized up, his eyes went wide in shock, and he fell to his knees. "Oh God" the blond repeated over and over. Joe cautiously moved to comfort the boy, and soon after their digimon returned TK began cuddling Patamon. It would be quite a while before the two made their way back to camp.

* * *

><p>"Hey Izzy do you think TK and Joe are okay?"<p>

"Probably, they both have their digimon and crests, so I imagine not much would harm them."

"I guess" Kari's tone didn't sound very convinced "but how long does it take for them to get firewood?"

Izzy momentarily lost his composure remembering exact what the two were doing, "Well for those two apparently very long." 'Well that was weak' the boy thought to himself.

"If anything was wrong TK would probably message you on the d-terminal." He reasoned. "Look if you're that concerned you can go wait for them, it's probably better to have a lookout anyway."

The Izzy replied and then he released a sigh, not only had he managed to calm the girl but also remove her from the cave. Don't misunderstand, it wasn't like Izzy was going to undress or anything, but for his purposes it was better if no one else with a crest was around. The genius then pulled out the four crests he had in his possession. The first was his crest of knowledge, which always had its faint glow, next was the golden one he received from Tai back in the real world. The final two originated from the French girls, a dark green one from Lucy and a pink one from Gabrielle.

The boy then booted up a program on his laptop, it was one he had received from Genni and it could tell how much each crest was reacting. Originally it was supposed to be used to tell if each crest was ready to be used in digivolution, but by the time he received the program Patamon was the only one who hadn't digivolved to ultimate and Izzy never bothered to use it. Now however he could think of a different purpose.

Looking at the monitor he saw four bar graphs and a horizontal line across the middle. One of the bar graphs was well above the line, while the others were far beneath it. By moving the crest of knowledge away Izzy watched as the corresponding bar graph plummeted. Of course even placing the crest away from himself the bar was far higher than the others, but Izzy knew all he needed to. The line was probably the digivolution point – basically how much of the trait needed to be shown to attain digivolution, and the crests got weaker as the distance between them and a human show that trait got larger. Logically if he removed two of the crests from the immediate area, and then exhibited the correct traits he could find spikes in the bar graph representing each trait.

The child of knowledge allowed himself a smile, before watching as one of the bar graphs began to spike. 'Already?' he thought, but wasted no time isolating the crest. He found that this spike came from the gold crest.

'So this is the crest what's the trait?' he thought to himself 'there was sloth, gluttony, greed, lust, pride wrath and envy.' He settled on pride, deciding that he was proud of his strategy to determine the identity of the crests. He also made a mental note of the other traits and how to test them. Eventually he decided he would leave sloth for last, mostly because he didn't know if he could trick the trait out. The only problem was that that meant he had to exhibit some of the other traits, namely lust.

Not that the boy had never felt lust before, but he was still extremely uncomfortable about it, and even more uncomfortable about trying to experience it out in the middle of the digiworld. Nonetheless, he decided to test that trait first when no one else was around; it just made him less awkward. Izzy grabbed the pink crest first, hoping that the colour might suggest that it was indeed the crest of lust.

After a few minutes of running through the popular girls in his class, Izzy began to give up. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn't force himself to feel – well – 'that way'. That was until he looked at the mouth of the cave and saw Kari. Izzy had never thought about another team member in anyway other than friendship before, he knew others did; Matt was dating Sora and Ken was dating Yolie, but his current state of mind was going crazy when he saw the younger girl.

Kari wasn't fully developed quite yet, but she was definitely on her way. The Digidestined of light was rather athletic and it showed as her entire body was – what's the word? – Ah yes, toned. At this point Izzy could clearly see why TK and Davis both competed for her, and why they chased off other potential suitors too. The thought crossed his mind that the two of them would probably kill him if they knew what he was doing – not to mention Tai – but he ignored it as he watched the girl bend over, and gave him a perfect view of her long legs and tight –

Izzy forced himself to look away. A certain part of his anatomy was defiantly signaling that he felt lust right now, and he decided it was best if he kept this experience as short as possible. He found his suspicion correct, as the bar for the crest he was holding was defiantly higher than normal. Izzy was glad; he didn't want to go through all that for nothing. The boy then placed the crest to the side and grabbed the last one, the green one. Izzy wondered if this one would be just as easy to place.

'Let's see green, green, envy is the green eyed monster?'

Izzy immediately tried to feel envious, but after all the lessons he learnt in the digital world it was kind of difficult. After when you learn everyone has a place and individuality makes a team, it's a little harder to be envious. Still the Digidestined of knowledge was never one without a plan, he decided to pick the person most different from him, and then see what he was envious of.

The person most different was easy; it was obviously Mimi. What to be envious of was harder; Izzy hardly cared about his fashion sense, and, having a close group of friends like the digidestined he didn't feel the need to be overly social. There was one thing though; Mimi had the ineffable ability to bring out the good in people. Not just insist they could change but help them change as well. While Izzy was exceptional at giving advice in a classroom-like setting he never had people coming to him asking for real advice, just tutor like questions. The more he thought about it, the more Izzy could feel a small resentment building up, he decided he needed to vent these feelings, so he would do wrath next.

There was no need, as his computer indicated that he had been correct, and that this was the crest of envy. Izzy smirked, he had just figured out three crests in two guesses, he quickly released the smirk as he saw the crest of pride was activating again. The boy started to close his computer as he heard Kari re-enter the cave.

"I'm getting worried, their still not back yet." She said.

"If you're that worried then just look at your digivise," Izzy said, "you should be able to hone in on their location and just fly there on Nefertimon"

Kari did as Izzy suggested, and immediately looked up afterwards. "Someone's coming this way."

Izzy looked to confirm this on his own digivice, but stopped as the three anti-crests began to react, and then – to Izzy's surprise fly out of the cave.

"Stop them!" Izzy declared, and watched as Tentomon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon Yolie and Cody tried in vain to catch the allusive crests. Every time they came close to grabbing one, it would dive out of the way, even in the rare case that someone managed to grab a crest, they released a bright light and forced whomever grabbed it to let go. Gatomon had a different strategy in mind altogether. She quickly digivolved to Nefertimon and destroyed the crest of envy.

"What are you doing?" Izzy asked incredulously.

"Better destroyed then in the hands of the enemy" the armor Digimon replied. Nefertimon didn't wait for conformation of her actions as she immediately destroyed the crest of lust as well.

Her third beam however, missed its target as a moment before impact the crest dodged and headed towards the opposite shoreline.

Izzy looked watched in slow motion as the crest of pride escaped, he knew that even if one crest got through it could be deadly but at this point there was nothing he could do. The crest was too far away for a rookie, and Digivolving would take too much time. Nefertimon was their only option and she was recharging and wouldn't be able to fire in time, so all he could do was watch.

And watch he did as the crest continued to fly into a comically oversized rocket before Izzy was forced to shield his eyes. When he recovered he looked for the source of the blast and found a cyborg-dinosaur flying towards them

"You sure know how to make an entrance." The bearer of knowledge quipped.

"Whatever." Tai responded nonchalantly, "what happened, and why did the crests start acting up, you know you're lucky the two I had did too or Metalgreymon probably wouldn't be who he is right now."

"I don't know what happened to the crests, just like I don't know why were in the digital world," Izzy half lied, he had hypotheses, but one was rather vague and the other didn't account for why the crests acted up. "But if you said that two of yours acted up, then there's a good chance that the two in Davis' group will as well."

"Too late for that," Yolie supplied "I just got a message from ken saying their anti-crests went all haywire and they had to destroy them."

Tai just nodded in confirmation "so what's your plan?"

"We're going to sleep tonight, and then tomorrow when Imperialdramon is back were going to collect the international digidestined and go to Genni's"

"Hey are you guy's okay?"

Izzy and Tai turned to see Pegasusmon land beside them with Joe, TK and Gomamon.

"We heard explosions and went to see if there was a battle."

"No everything's fine" Tai said as Pegasusmon reverted back to Patamon. He and TK solemnly went into the cave to prepare for the night.

"Anything I need to know about 'collecting firewood'" Izzy asked Joe

"Relax; he'll be fine, just give him a day." Joe said.

Tai's gaze quickly switched between the two, "What did I miss?"

"Nevermind." They said in unision.

* * *

><p><strong>Part of this chapter was to show that at any time two people can believe two very different things and still both be right, but I think I demonized TK a little. Which is odd, because I like TK.<strong>

**Also, this chapter ended up way longer then I thought it would, not because more happened than I thought would, it just took longer. And no, I didn't originally plan on the IzzyxKari scene, but as I was writing the idea popped into my head and I found it rather humorous**

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**In the review page, You don't need an account, just do an unsigned review and call yourself Deus Athei fan X, where X is the number of people who have done this before + 1.**


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